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Khepera

Other Names:

Khepri, Khoprer, Xepera

(Khepri; Khoprer; G/R Xepera) - "Becoming" As a theophany of the solar-god, the scarab beetle (Scarabeus sacer) is large, golden, and winged. It rolls balls of dung, sometimes for long distances, in order to have a place in which to lay its eggs. The young beetles then spring forth from the ball of dung, seemingly as if created from nothing. In this process, the ancients saw a metaphor for the daily progress of the sun (rolling as a ball across the sky every day), and for the mystery of creation and birth. Khepera as a full scarab or a scarab-headed man is often shown either within the Disk of the physical sun, or rolling it, as it were, from the eastern mountains in the morning and back into Tem's watchful embrace in the evening. Khepera is associated with the life-giving powers of sunlight and with the act of sunrise itself, forming a special triad with Ra (noontime sun) and Tem (setting sun).